Elizabeth Holmes trial: Journalist who helped 'raise to prominence' Theranos CEO to take witness stand
Journalist Roger Parloff, who wrote the first major cover story on Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes and later issued a retraction, is expected to testify in her criminal trial as soon as Thursday.
The government has alleged Holmes used the media, and Parloff's Fortune Magazine story titled "This CEO is Out for Blood" in particular, to perpetuate a scheme to defraud investors.
Parloff's anticipated testimony comes as the government has said it is close to resting its case against Holmes. She faces a dozen counts of federal fraud and conspiracy charges, and up to 20 years in prison over allegations that she knowingly misled doctors, patients and investors in order to take their money. Holmes has pleaded not guilty.
Holmes was for a time upheld in the media as a rare female founder who'd raised significant sums of capital and driven her startup to an eye-popping $9 billion valuation. Parloff's story was the first of many laudatory cover stories of Holmes and has been shown repeatedly in the San Jose courtroom. Prosecutors have tried to show jurors how the article, which contained false and misleading statements, was circulated to stakeholders and how it played a role in validating the company to outsiders.
"This morning I had one of the most interesting meetings I can recall with the women [sic] profiled in the attached Fortune magazine article," read one email shown to jurors from the CEO of RDV Corp, the family office of the billionaire family of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The email was sent to members of the DeVos family before they invested $100 million into Theranos.
Investor Chris Lucas, whose firm Black Diamond Ventures invested more than $7 million across two funding rounds in 2006 and 2013, testified earlier this month that the piece made him "proud of the situation. Proud that we are involved. Proud of Elizabeth."
"Great article, great pictures, the whole thing," testified Lucas.
In a column more than a year later titled "How Theranos Misled Me," Parloff acknowledged that the article "helped raise to prominence" Holmes. (There is now an author's note at the top of his original article that links to the column and reads, "On December 17, 2015, I published a protracted correction to this article here.")
"As much as I'd like to say that Holmes lied to me, I don't think she did. I do believe I was misled — intentionally — but I was also culpable, in that I failed to probe certain exasperatingly opaque answers that I repeatedly received," wrote Parloff, who was formerly an attorney.
The government said in a court filing that it will not seek to admit the follow-up column but "reserves the right to introduce that article for a non-hearsay purpose should the defense open the door by questioning Parloff about statements he made in that article."
For weeks, attorneys have been wrangling over what Parloff can testify to, and what information he can be compelled to provide. While Parloff has turned over audio recordings and notes from his interviews with Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani as part of a grand jury subpoena order, he successfully fought a trial subpoena order by Holmes' defense team for notes and recordings from interviews he conducted with others for his story.
(Balwani faces the same charges as Holmes; his criminal trial is slated to begin next year. He has also pleaded not guilty.)
Holmes' attorneys argued those notes may serve to refute the claims that Holmes misled Parloff, and through him, investors. Judge Nathanael Cousins, who presided in a hearing on the matter, called the quest for Parloff's additional notes "a fishing expedition as to whether there might be material out there that could be helpful to the defense."
Parloff's remorse over the story has been well-documented.
"Roger was first [to the story] and felt a tremendous amount of guilt," said Alex Gibney in 2019. Gibney is the prolific documentary filmmaker whose HBO film, "The Inventor," chronicled the rise and fall of Theranos. Gibney, who has said his work started with interviewing journalists who felt duped, has called Parloff the "beating heart" of his film. (CNN and HBO share a parent company.)
In addition to Parloff's article, a 2013 piece by a Wall Street Journal opinion writer, who has since passed away, has been frequently brought up in the courtroom. The government has alleged that, prior to its publication, Holmes approved the piece, which offered a glowing look at Holmes and Theranos, but also contained misleading claims about the company's capabilities at the time. The article corresponded with a broader unveiling of the startup after years of operating in stealth and was leveraged by Holmes as validation of the company.
In a statement to CNN Business in September, Journal spokesperson Steve Severinghaus said, "editors make publishing decisions based on their independent judgment."
The statement continued, "Our writer asked Elizabeth Holmes to confirm complicated facts on a technical subject, not to approve publication. Our writer visited Theranos, spoke with numerous sources in and outside the company about its technology, and had his blood tested on a Theranos machine that appeared to offer credible results. If that was all a deception, then the responsibility lies with Ms. Holmes and Theranos."
伊丽莎白福尔摩斯审判：帮助“提升”Theranos 首席执行官的记者将在法庭作证
记者罗杰·帕洛夫 (Roger Parloff) 撰写了关于 Theranos 的伊丽莎白·福尔摩斯 (Elizabeth Holmes) 的第一个主要封面故事，后来发表撤回声明，预计最快将于周四在她的刑事审判中作证。
政府指控福尔摩斯利用媒体，特别是帕洛夫在《财富》杂志上题为“这位 CEO 为血而死”的故事，来延续一项欺骗投资者的计划。
帕洛夫的证词出炉之际，政府已表示即将停止对福尔摩斯的诉讼。她面临多项联邦欺诈和共谋指控，并因涉嫌故意误导医生、患者和投资者以收取他们的钱而面临最高 20 年的监禁。福尔摩斯不认罪。
福尔摩斯一度在媒体上被认为是一位罕见的女性创始人，她筹集了大量资金并推动她的创业公司达到惊人的 90 亿美元估值。帕洛夫的故事是福尔摩斯众多赞誉的封面故事中的第一个，并且在圣何塞法庭上多次出现。检察官试图向陪审员展示这篇包含虚假和误导性陈述的文章是如何传播给利益相关者的，以及它如何在向外界证实公司方面发挥了作用。
亿万富翁家族家族办公室 RDV Corp 首席执行官发给陪审员的一封电子邮件写道：“今天早上，我与《财富》杂志所附文章中提到的女性 [原文如此] 举行了一次最有趣的会议。”前教育部长贝齐·德沃斯。这封电子邮件是在 DeVos 家族向 Theranos 投资 1 亿美元之前发送给他们的。
投资者克里斯卢卡斯，其公司 Black Diamond Ventures 在 2006 年和 2013 年的两轮融资中投资了超过 700 万美元，本月早些时候作证说，这件作品让他“为这种情况感到自豪。为我们参与感到自豪。为伊丽莎白感到自豪。”
“很棒的文章，很棒的图片，整个事情，”卢卡斯作证说。
一年多后，在题为“Theranos 是如何误导我”的专栏中，帕洛夫承认这篇文章“有助于提升”福尔摩斯的知名度。 （现在在他的原始文章顶部有一个作者的注释，链接到该专栏并写道：“2015 年 12 月 17 日，我在这里发表了对这篇文章的长期更正。”）
“尽管我很想说福尔摩斯对我撒谎，但我认为她没有。我确实相信我被误导了——故意——但我也有罪，因为我没有探究某些令人恼火的不透明答案我多次收到，”前律师帕洛夫写道。
政府在一份法庭文件中表示，它不会寻求承认后续专栏，但“如果辩方通过质疑帕洛夫在该文章中所做的陈述而打开大门，则保留出于非传闻目的介绍该文章的权利。 .”
几个星期以来，律师们一直在争论帕洛夫可以作证什么，以及他可以被迫提供哪些信息。作为大陪审团传票命令的一部分，帕洛夫已经交出了他对福尔摩斯和前 Theranos 首席运营官 Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani 的采访录音和笔记，但他成功地与福尔摩斯辩护团队的审判传票进行了抗争，以获取采访笔记和录音他和其他人一起指挥他的故事。
（巴尔瓦尼面临与福尔摩斯相同的指控；他的刑事审判定于明年开始。他也表示不认罪。）
福尔摩斯的律师辩称，这些笔记可能有助于驳斥福尔摩斯误导帕洛夫并通过他误导投资者的说法。主持此事的听证会的法官纳撒尼尔·考辛斯 (Nathanael Cousins) 称，对帕洛夫 (Parloff) 的补充说明的要求是“一次钓鱼考察，以确定是否有可能有助于辩护的材料。”
帕洛夫对这个故事的悔恨是有据可查的。
2019 年，亚历克斯·吉布尼 (Alex Gibney) 说：“罗杰 (Roger) 第一个 [故事] 感到非常内疚。”吉布尼 (Gibney) 是一位多产的纪录片制片人，其 HBO 电影《发明家》(The Inventor) 记录了 Theranos 的兴衰。吉布尼说他的工作是从采访感觉被骗的记者开始的，他称帕洛夫是他电影中“跳动的心脏”。 （CNN 和 HBO 共享一家母公司。）
除了帕洛夫的文章外，《华尔街日报》一位已去世的评论作家在 2013 年发表的一篇文章也经常出现在法庭上。政府声称，在发布之前，福尔摩斯批准了这篇文章，该文章对福尔摩斯和 Theranos 进行了热烈的审视，但也包含对该公司当时能力的误导性声明。这篇文章与经过多年秘密运营的初创公司的更广泛揭幕相对应，并被福尔摩斯用作公司的验证。
在 9 月份给 CNN Business 的一份声明中，《华尔街日报》发言人史蒂夫·塞弗林豪斯 (Steve Severinghaus) 表示，“编辑根据他们的独立判断做出出版决定。”
声明继续说道，“我们的作者要求伊丽莎白·霍姆斯确认一个技术主题的复杂事实，而不是批准发表。我们的作者访问了 Theranos，与公司内外的众多消息来源就其技术进行了交谈，并在 Theranos 上进行了血液测试。 机器似乎提供了可信的结果。如果这都是骗局，那么责任就在福尔摩斯女士和 Theranos 身上。”
